That Racist Rant - a Perspective

When is a Private Conversation Public?

The owner of the LA Clippers NBA basketball team allegedly said some pretty unpleasant things recently.  You've probably heard about it - he allegedly told his free-spirited girlfriend to be racially selective about who she brings into his presence.  The NBA is investigating.  Obama has chimed in, half-cocked as usual.  People are shocked.  His players are p.o.'ed, since most of them are black and those that aren't are offended on behalf of their black team mates.  

He allegedly said it to her during a private telephone conversation.  The word 'allegedly' is used because the jury is still out on whether the recording has been altered, and if it has been, how much.  

Who among us has not said something offensive during what we had reason to believe was a private conversation?  Who among us might be vulnerable to career termination if some of our words are altered and then used out of context?

How many of us would like to see and hear our private conversations, altered or not, on the 5 o'clock news?

Are important business people not entitled to expect a reasonable level of personal privacy?

Aren't there laws that make recording and broadcasting someone's telephone conversations without their consent illegal?  The feds and local police need warrants to be able to do that.  Did the person who recorded and broadcast this conversation have the necessary authority and a warrant?  Your ostrich killer doubts it.  And your ostrich killer wonders why he is the only one asking these questions.

So I don't care what he said.  In fact, I don't care what most people say.  I only care what they do.  But I am offended by the breach of his personal privacy.

DREAM POLITICAL CANDIDATE INTERVIEW QUESTION AND ANSWERS

"Mister Candidate, you've repeatedly spoken about your conservative values. You are in a tight race. What special measures are you planning to take to garner more of the traditional liberal voting population, such as blacks and latinos?"

"None. Blacks typically vote over ninety percent for democrats, no matter who they are or what they stand for or what experience they may have or the quality of the conservative opposition. So a dollar of my campaign money spent trying to attract their vote is a dollar wasted. I take a similar position with regard to the latino vote."

"You will make no special effort at all? Isn't that conceding all those votes to your opposition?"

"Look, there is no color or ethnic or religious description of an American, and for good reason: that category includes everyone who is a citizen of this country. To make a special effort to romance votes from this or that sub-group of Americans would be racist, or otherwise discriminatory in that one group or another is receiving special consideration or promises of special favors. My appeal is to all Americans capable of casting a vote. I don't give a damn about skin color or what their ancestors ate. If they are American citizens, my positions on the issues will appeal to them - irrespective of any other factors. Let my opponent make special promises. His party is good at that. Unfortunately, they aren't so good at keeping them. Even the most simple research will bear this out; however, it seems my opponent's constituency is either unwilling or incapable of dispassionate research, or even objective rational thought."

"The latino vote is a little more complicated, sir -"

"Not really. In the latino heritage community in this country, there are either Americans or non-Americans. I don't give a damn about the opinions of non-Americans, those here on legitimate visas or illegally. They cannot legally vote. Of course, my opponent's party will spend vast sums doing what it can to find ways for people in this country illegally to vote for them illegally. We all know this. But I reject that I, or my party, should in some sly way court the illegal vote. My position on illegals is that they are criminals and should be captured, punished, and then deported on tramp steamers, penniless, to the southernmost tip of whatever country they came from. So a message to illegals, latino or any other - I'm not your friend."

MEL GIBSON RANTS - SO?

A guy and a gal have a big, name-calling argument over the phone. Unbenownst to the guy, the gal is taping him.

First, that's a felony in most states. But leaving that aside, let's look at the obvious. And the obvious is - drum roll, please - that the conversation was private. There was a hundred percent expectation of privacy by the guy. People say things in private, especially when angry and maybe even a little buzzed, that they would never say in front of a television camera or at a press conference.

So what Mel said was ugly. Who among us has not said an ugly thing in private? Had he said that stuff in public, then there's a story. But in private? C'mon. Get over it, stupid mainstream media. Is there really such a shortage of actual news that this can get your attention?

TEA PARTY DECLARED A RACIST ORGANIZATION BY NAACP

News Flash, Dateline somewhere in America: Today the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People - an organization whose sole purpose for existence is to promote and benefit the fortunes of people with black skin at the expense of people of any other skin color -denounced the Tea Party as a racist organization. While offering no objective proof, they point to the predominantly white membership of the Tea Party as a smoking gun. They offered no explanation for why that membership population should differ from the general population.

In unrelated news, in the home of Mrs. Silas Jones in Peoria, her teapot reportedly called the soup kettle 'black.' Investigation is continuing.

My Dream Party's Political Platform

We all have fantasies about what we'd like our favorite political personality to say. I'm no different. So, since this is my blog, I'm going to outline my dream party's political platform. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I'm enjoying putting it down on paper.

1. Domestic Policy: Leave people the hell alone. Stay out of their lives, stay out of their ways, keep government's hands off their property.
2. Protecting the Poor: This is the land of freedom. Freedom to succeed, freedom to fail. It isn't government's job to enable the poor to remain poor, or the rich to remain rich, or any permutation or combination of those possibilities. See Domestic Policy, above. So let the poor choose: starve, or work. If some bleeding hearts out there think this is inhumane, maybe they could point to the Constitution and show us where it permits the Federal Government to be a charity clearing house, or to take from one person and give to another. Nothing prevents concerned neighbors, communities, families, or bleeding hearts from banding together and volunteering their personal resources to help the poor. But it isn't government's job.
3. Energy: Our country and our economy runs on energy. So cheapest is best, all other things roughly equal. For now and the foreseeable future, cheapest is nuclear. Next is coal. Then oil. Then anything else. Nothing has to be especially polluting, given today's technologies. So we're for nukes, coal and oil. We're also for a robust and energetic research program to see what other sources can be harnessed to produce even cheaper energy, such as fusion, tidal, geothermal, wind, etc. But it's gotta be cheaper, or at least not more expensive.
4. Offshore Drilling: Why drill offshore, when there's lots of oil right under our Red White and Blue dirt? Drilling on land has less chance to pollute, and is easier to clean up if an accident happens. No miles of shoreline are damaged, only a few acres of dirt. So we're for offshore drilling if there is no oil under our dirt, otherwise we should drill right here.
5. Foreign Policy: Our Number One export is freedom. Freedom everywhere is in our national best interest. So our foreign policy priority is first to protect our citizens and national interests at home and abroad, which means expanding the export of freedom. Otherwise, we don't meddle.
6. The Iraq War: See Foreign Policy, above.
7. The War on Terror: See Foreign Policy, above.
8. National Defense: We're the only superpower. We have at least a 25-year warfighting technology lead on the rest of the world. We're in favor of increasing that to a 50-year lead. Why? See Foreign Policy, above.
9. Taxes: They're too high. We're in favor of a flat tax rate, which 100% of American will pay. There will be no exemptions, no breaks for the poor. We want everyone to be sorely interested in taxes; today, close to half our citizens pay no income taxes, so they're in favor of tax increases to pay for increased benefits to them. This will change under our administration. Businesses pay too many taxes; we mean to cut them at least in half to help stimulate more innovation, more entrepreneurism, more exports.
10. Entitlement Programs: Aside for veterans and certain first responders, there will be no federally-funded entitlement programs. This will save our national budget well over a trillion dollars annually.
11. Abortion: We don't know when human life begins, and neither does anyone else. So our position is that any unborn has the same rights to life as anyone who can read this platform.
12. Racism: Policies or programs that benefit or punish people differently at least partly because of skin color or declared race, is racism. Therefore ALL government policies, laws and programs that do that will be revoked.

Do you have other suggestions for this Dream Party Political Platform? Send them to the Ostrich Killer, and maybe we'll add them to this list. Now, back to that coffee pot . . .

Barack Hussein Obama Leaves His Church Without Condemning Its Messages

The Democratic Nominee for President of the United States, Mr. Barack Hussein Obama, has left his church. He did so, he says, to spare its parishoners further harrassement from the media.

He did NOT say he condemns the messages spewing from its pulpit. He did not condemn its rhetoric, its racist, sexist, class-envying anti-American tirades. He instead scolded the media for asking questions of its parishoners.

He spent 20 years in that church, listening to the sort of rhetoric we've all heard lately. It has to have shaped his thinking, perhaps reflected it. Do we need a president who grew up in a racist, sexist and anti-American church, and leaves it now only because the media tries to talk to its members?

Okay, I'll say it: having heard the rhetoric, having heard Obama's half-hearted reasons for leaving the church, I believe Obama to be racist and sexist. And I predict that you'll hear from his wife words that will suggest she is too.

I also believe Obama to be what is fashionably called a 'socialist' whose view of uplifting people is to punish the rich. Not sure how this helps the less than rich, but it might make them feel good, at least until they find themselves out of work because the rich, who create jobs and services, will do what they have to in order to preserve whatever capital Obama lets them keep. Payback, right? Feels good, but you can't eat it . . .

OPRAH ENDORSES OBAMA

"I've never endorsed anyone before," she says. "I'm endorsing him because I know him personally and know what he stands for." Those quotes are really paraphrases. If you want exact quotes, google for 'oprah endorse obama' and get them yourself.

Okay, that out of the way, let's examine her endorsement.

First, she knows him personally. Okay, that's fine. Not sure why it's enough to make her finally come out and endorse someone officially, but still. She's entitled to back someone she knows. If someone I knew and liked ran, I might do the same.

Next, though, she 'knows what he stands for.' Okay, Oprah. What, specifically, does he stand for? You didn't mention anything. Let us know. Don't be nebulous and evasive. Stand up! Speak out! Tell us which of his stances on what issues especially resonate with you. Share your insights with the rest of us. After all, it isn't quite sufficient (except, perhaps, to members of your book club) to simply say that you like what he stands for. That isn't exactly a ringing endorsement to critical-thinking voters, who might want a little more meat on the bleached bones of a non-specific statement.

Okay, by now it's clear to everyone that I don't hold Oprah's political acumen in high regard. Her business sense, yes. Politics, no.

Lastly, let me pose a question: Is it mere coincidence that the only viable black candidate on the Democratic ticket ever receives the endorsement of the world's most widely known black woman? Lest I be labeled a white racist for even raising the question, let me propose a mental model: Let's say that Jesse Jackson is running and has won a primary or two. He's viable. He's gonna get votes. In this model, does Oprah endorse him? You decide.

Let's cut to the chase. If your answer is 'probably,' doesn't that mean that Oprah's criteria for qualification includes skin color? Think about it. All these years, all these white candidates. No endorsement. Along comes ONE viable black candidate, and she endorses.

Do you believe in coincidences? If so, I have this bridge in Brooklyn I'm trying to unload at a reasonable price.

Okay, I'll say it. If it looks racist, and walks like a racist, and talks like a racist, then it's possible that it is a racist. Oprah, honey babe, you've been called out. At the very least we have the appearance of racism. At some point you're going to have to produce some reasonable justification for your sudden eagerness to endorse a political candidate who happens to share your skin color.

Sayin' it like I see it, your friendly Ostrich Killer goes back to sleep . . .

Oh, and visit my e-Novels site. Review my novels, and buy them. Best stories you'll read this year! Not only that, you'll help keep me able to post stuff like this from time to time! Win - Win!